


Gentle Touches

by storytime_teej



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2018-11-19 18:28:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11319120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storytime_teej/pseuds/storytime_teej
Summary: Touch-starved Genji purposely in constant contact with Jesse and when they're alone, Jesse holds him close in his big cowboy arms.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction and its mostly just a practice drabble so I can get better for bigger stuff. Anyway, thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy!

He almost doesn't notice them at first. The small touches. Little bumps in passing, gently touching two fingers to his wrist during mission briefs, holding his elbow with a featherlight touch, leaning on him, fingers lingering after his hat is snatched, rubbing his hair into a wild mess before returning the stetson. The little touches McCree finds himself noticing more and more often whenever Genji is near. At first, he tries to convince himself that it's all accidental, that somehow the cyborg with complete control over every fidget and shift of his body is only accidentally creating these drive-by contacts. 

It takes McCree jolting awake in a cold sweat and too scared to go back to sleep, wandering the cold linoleum halls of the base and ending up in a silent encounter with the cyborg, it takes Genji crossing the tiled floor so quietly and running his fingers through Jesse's hair so softly for him to finally give it up. He leans into the touch and Genji rewards him with a gentle scratch, causing a shiver of delight to run through McCree. He takes a half-step closer, afraid of scaring Genji off, but the cyborg stays firmly planted, fingers still dragging tingling lines across Jesse's scalp. Genji tilts his head ever so slightly to the left and lets his hand rest against the back of Jesse's head before giving a light, experimental tug. Mccree sucks in a breath sharply and shuts his eyes, leaning into the touch more. He can almost see Genji's eyes light up as he presses a gentle kiss to the exposed material of Genji's wrist, almost hear the soft gasp as he wraps himself around Genji's small frame, almost feel the vibrations as Genji feels simultaneously grounded and ready to explode. 

He needed this. They both did. They move to McCree's room, pressed against each other's side, and make their place on the bed, curled up together in the corner and shrouded in the thick duvet. Minutes that feel like hours pass filled with touches that start out cautious and explorative, gradually becoming solid and sure. Genji likes to rub at Jesse's stubble, likes to run his fingers over the broad plane of his chest and feel the nervous flutter of Jesse's heartbeat, likes to press his hands into the warm rolls of Jesse's stomach with a soft smile he knows Jesse will never see. Jesse likes to hold Genji's faceplate with his warm hands no matter how cold it is until it's warmed up, likes to press his face and tender kisses into Genji's hands, like to rub circles into the comforting texture of the material on Genji's thighs. 

Every time Genji touches him, McCree feels the need to say something, anything. A thanks, a compliment, a request. Every time he thinks he's found something to say, all he can do is whimper as Genji moves on to the next area. He tries to convince himself to get up the courage to say it next time, but by then Genji has moved his touch elsewhere and McCree is content to just let him touch. 

Eventually, to the ire of the two, McCree's alarm makes its loud arrival with the day. McCree breathes a shaky sigh and reaches for Genji one last time but the cyborg had already stood off the bed. Fumbling for the words he tried to speak when they were together, McCree opened and closed his mouth lamely, looking around his bed for some sort of excuse.

“We will do this again sometime.” 

The sound of the cybernetic voice was strange after so long spent in quiet company and all McCree could do was nod as Genji stalked out of the room. As the door closed, McCree found himself gasping for air as if he'd been out of breath. He pressed a hand to his chest and found his heart beating rapidly. He let out a breathy chuckle as he flopped back onto his bed and rested a hand over his eyes.

“Lord A’mighty,” he rasped, smiling fondly to himself. He looked forward to next time.


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mccree goes through his daily routine and begins to see the troubles of his relationship with Genji.

In the dead of night, under the dim glow of light that pooled into the room from the pointless television static, they sat curled together, poking and prodding, touching and sighing with content. McCree ran a thumb over the edge of Genji's faceplate, staring longingly at the metal as the cyborg tenderly scratched at the underside of his jaw and stared transfixed with the wild hair of Jesse's beard. After their first encounter, it had become ritual to meet long after everyone else had fallen asleep and return to the welcome embrace of the other. Time after time, McCree found himself at a loss for words as Genji gracefully drew patterns across his skin and, on the rare occasion, allowed McCree to see Genji at his most vulnerable. Again and again, he would find himself fighting back the suffocating disappointment when Genji would remove himself, called away by one thing or another but most often the cry of an alarm clock. As much as he understood the circumstances, he could not find it within himself to accept them. He breathed a heavy sigh, catching Genji's attention, and rested his head against the back of the couch.

“What's the matter, McCree?” Genji's hands stilled their ministrations, still curled into the wiry hair. Jesse smiled weakly and shook his head, gently tracing a hand up and down Genji's forearm.

“Don't you worry your pretty little head about it, darling,” he murmured and leaned into the touch. “Just got a lot on my mind is all.”

Genji stayed still for a moment before he continued to draw his fingers through the tangled hair. “What are you thinking about?”

Jesse let out a light snort and held Genji's face in his hands, pressing their foreheads together. “A whole lotta nothing. Thinking just to think.” He let his eyes flutter closed and listened to the hum of electronics, and the quiet hiss and sigh of Genji's breathing apparatus compared to his slightly wheezing and heavy breaths, and the soft noise that Genji pulled from his hair with each gentle scratch.

They sat in silence, the conversation ended by Jesse's closed up nature. Instead, they continued to press wandering hands to each other, bodies pressed side to side as they ghosted touches over cheeks, chins, chests, wrists, fingers, anywhere they could reach. Genji's hands came to rest on McCree's, cradling the callused hands around his own cheeks. He hummed quietly and rested his forehead on McCree's shoulder. He slid his hands down Jesse's arms, fascinated by the feeling of hair under his hypersensitive touch, then down his chest until they came to rest wrapped around Jesse's waist.

“Mccree… You know you are my friend, yes?” Genji asked, voice hauntingly quiet.

“Mhm.”

Genji took a deep breath, trying to feel the rumble of McCree's voice as its ghost rolled through him. “Then know you can tell me anything. I will lend an ear whenever you may need me.”

Mccree rested his chin on Genji's head and rubbed a thumb up and down the nape of Genji's neck, along the cool metal brace that ran from the base of his skull down his back. “Same for you, Genji. if you ever need someone to listen, just give the word and I'll be there.”

The night passed quietly and the morning came with the trill of an alarm from Mccree’s watch, an hour before the other agents were supposed to awake. Before he could even open his mouth to fit in a proper goodbye, Jesse watched as the ghost lights that trailed from Genji faded and left him in an empty room colder than he’d like to be. He rose with a strained grunt and shook himself of stiff muscles. The commander would be furious if he was late again with no excuse, after all, what kind of excuse was “I stayed up all night cuddling with my best friend”?

The morning passed as it usually did: shower, get dressed, head to the cafeteria, pass Genji and receive a light touch on the shoulder, get in line for breakfast with Genji pressed right to his side looking past him for the next option, sit to eat with Genji still glued to his side as their feet bumped together under the table and everyone listened to another one of Reinhardt’s rousing stories, head to the PT area to do a company-wide morning exercise, and finish up by getting suited up for the rest of the day. Pulling on his Blackwatch uniform, Mccree shuddered, remembering the feeling of Genji’s skilled fingers ghosting over his skin where the fabric brushed him. A quick look in the mirror and a scratch of his beard and he decided he’d let his beard grow just a  _ little _  longer. Not because it was where Genji paid the most attention or anything… He just thought he’d grow it a little longer.

The afternoon passed slower than the rest of the day. Mccree had set up in the shooting range and practiced on the highest level difficulty of moving targets he could manage, and kept it up for about half an hour before Genji snuck in, sidling up behind the cowboy to snatch the stetson from his head. Jesse eyed him with amused suspicion, turning back to the targets as Genji leaned against the lane frame.

“You’re pretty handy with a gun,” the cyborg said, flicking up the hat as it began to slide down his face. 

“Probably be dead if I weren’t,” Mccree shot back, firing a single shot through three targets that aligned perfectly. Aim and wait.

“Probably. And what about me?”

“What about you?” Mccree furrowed his brow, looking over his shoulder to Genji as he shot down four separate targets perfectly. Aim and wait.

“What am I handy with?” Regardless of if Genji was wearing his helmet or not, no one could deny the impish tone that laced his words, no doubt a smirk accompanying them.

“Wh- h- y- _what_?” Jesse sputtered, barely hitting all four targets as they unaligned. He swallowed thickly at Genji’s light laugh and pat his head in an attempt to straighten his hat which was still sat upon Genji’s wild mess of hair. Genji laughed harder and Jesse felt his ears burn with a blush. “I suppose you’re real handy with your hands, darling. Flicking them shuriken around the way you do, that’s the only thing I could expect.”

Genji hummed as if evaluating the appeal to this answer before deciding he liked it. “What about a sword? Am I not handy with those as well?”

Mccree felt the blush creep onto his face. “‘Course, that too.” Reload, aim and wait.

“And what about my words?”

“Real good with those, sweetheart,” Mccree answered absentmindedly, taking down the first six targets with deadly accuracy. Reload, aim and wait.

“And I suppose if I’m good with my words, then I must be good with... _my mouth?_ ”

Mccree closed his eyes with a deep breath as he shot down five of the six targets he was aiming for. “ _Mhm_ ,” he answered, voice rumbling deep in his chest.

Genji pushed himself off the lane frame with a mischievous laugh and pressed against the wide plane of Jesse’s back to set the Stetson back on its rightful owner’s head, running his fingers through Jesse’s beard as he whispered to the cowboy. “Better get back to work, before Reyes gets mad.”

“Huh?” Mccree whirled around to see Genji had disappeared and Gabriel rounded the side of his lane with no small amount of sternness on his face.

“Get back to work, Mccree. I see you slack off more than Genji and he just got out the ICU.”

Jesse nodded in a fluster and turned back to the targets, trying to shake himself of the feeling Genji’s laugh gave him, a strange sensation roiling around in his gut. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the tags say platonic cuddling but.... would anyone be mad if I turned this into friends to lovers?


End file.
